


Fever Dreams

by Fanfictionette (MarionMarionette)



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Authors rendition of events, Blood and Injury, But it gets fixed pretty easily, Established Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Headcanon, I made a lot of this stuff up, Karlnapity, M/M, Memory Loss, Mild Gore, Polyamory, Sad with a Happy Ending, The boys go on life changing journeys through time, Time Travel, Web Series: Tales from the SMP, it's real sweet, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29570769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarionMarionette/pseuds/Fanfictionette
Summary: "Take me to another worldWhere your fairytales and fever dreams can set me freeYou could be the one for meI want you to be"Karl, Sapnap, and Quackity were going through a tough time in their relationship. Karl didn't even know they'd care that much when he suddenly got hurt doing something he found quite... confusing. Rather than things going back to their normal distance, though, his fiances end up stepping through the next gateway with him, and before they know it, they're all having the time of their lives.Not even realizing that these trips are coming along with their very own side effects. Will they realize before its too late, or have things gone too far? How deep into a fever dream can you go until you can't wake back up?-The content of this fic takes place after the events of The Village that Went Mad and is fueled by headcanons-
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 9
Kudos: 68





	1. Now everyday I'm so blue

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write something again, and I saw how popular Heatwaves was with it being based off of a song and all (and having a popular ship and being very well written, but I also like to attribute some of it to the fact it's based on a song) so I decided to write this and a couple other stories I have planned to get back into the swing of this. So hooray! My favorite dsmp ship come to life, but with more angst and absolutely no art! This will NOT be popular! :D
> 
> Song: Fever Dreams - Diveo (feat. Taylor Fernandez)
> 
> Sidenote sidenote: This ship is specifically for the relationship portrayed on the roleplay. I do not ship the content creators themselves, and all of this is just headcanon candy for myself really. Pleased don't ship actual people!
> 
> Enjoy though! :)

Quackity took another swing at the log before him, the breath from his lungs leaving his mouth in steamy puffs through the air. He felt a droplet of sweat roll down the scar on his left cheek. It tickled a bit, but he paid it no mind as he raised the axe above his head once more and brought it down to split the log in half with one more swift _crack_.

Another breath of relief and he was dropping the axe, only to replace it with the logs that had fallen off the stump he was using for leverage. He huffed them, and the others he had cut, into his arms and turned on his heels. Winter had been a nightmare, for everyone on the SMP really. Doomsday had only been a few weeks ago, and still Alex was recovering from the aftermath. Every few days his mind would flit back to the image of him leaving Tubbo behind, with only his wishes of luck and his best goodbyes to see his protege through. He almost felt an inkling to check on him, he knew the whole ordeal must have taken a hard hit to the ex-president's psyche, but...

Making his way back towards the cabin he had managed to prop together in a short notice, Quackity let his thoughts leave him for a minute. He had better, more important matters to worry about. He stepped past his Boner, giving the horse one quick pet across his bony mane, if you could even call it that, and practically kicked the door open with his foot. The warmth from the fire he'd set up in his cabin rushed past him and out into the cold, but he paid it no mind. Instead, he tossed the heavy logs into the basket beside the door and kicked the mounds of snow from off of his boots. He'd have to shovel a path out to the forest eventually, he just couldn't bring himself to do it any time soon. Too much.. work...

Alex kicked off his shoes, poured a couple handfuls of water into the bucket sitting over the fireplace and plopped down on the couch to watch it boil. It'd have to be more mushroom stew tonight. Not that he liked it... but it recovered a lot of hunger!

As he let himself lean back on the pile of wood, hay, and cloth, Quackity relaxed for the first time in a long while. The gentle crackling and dancing shadows of the fire lulled him into a tranquil state, somewhere between a dream and reality. Which was how he spent most of his time, really. He didn't talk to anyone much nowadays. He didn't want to, too much of a hassle and.. well he didn't trust anyone else. No one except.. well, he hadn't seen them in a while so..

Against his will, Quackity let his mind wander off to the thought of his fiances. Sapnap, Karl Jacobs... two men he hadn't seen in, god, it'd been too long. He remembered their engagement had been such a spur of the moment thing, iffy at first, but if he truly admitted it to himself, he missed them dearly. They'd fallen off after Alex became a part of the Butcher Army, especially since he seemed to recall that Sapnap proclaimed himself to be on Dream's side. Which, he supposed, wasn't Sapnap's fault, per say. They had been friends _long_ before Alex was set to marry him. Even still, something about it just rubbed Quackity the wrong way, but he'd never admit it. He wouldn't talk to them though, at least not any time soon. Not by choice. He had his own stuff going on.

He wondered if the wedding would still happen...

The past few months were... something else. What with Alex getting caught up in the Butcher Army, Sapnap getting caught up with Dream, Karl getting caught up with.... whatever it was that handsome little man got caught up in.

Although, if it were up to Karl, Alex would have been the only "small man" to refer to. Remembering that made Alex grimace.

But nonetheless, despite their romantic standing, they'd certainly gone their separate ways. And now, with the impact of doomsday having fully caught up with the group, well. Were they even still in love? Debatable. One thing was for sure, though. Didn't matter who it was. Quackity was not letting himself getting caught up in anything Dream, Tommy, Tubbo, or even Ranboo related. Besides! He had something else to think about. Like caring for his precious Boner boy.

The sound of sizzling steam brought Quackity's mind out of the gutter for a moment and into reality. He sat up straight, confused for a moment, before he finally realized his bucket of water was beginning to boil over the top of the metal and trickle down into his fire, effectively beginning to put it out. He rushed up to grab a stick from off the mantle with which to pull the bucket out of the offending range of heat. He couldn't afford to get this wood wet, especially when the trees were starting to thin down from how much he was cutting them lately.

He stuck the stick under the handle of the bucket and pulled, but just a bit too hard. Causing the water to slosh over the edge and splash all over the wood and, much to his dismay, Quackity's own wooden floor. He bit his lip as he placed the now half-empty bucket on the ground and surveyed the damage. Well, there goes that pile of wood. Maybe if he was lucky he'd find a nether portal close enough where he could leave the charred pieces to dry up the water. But would they even relight at that point?

His life was on a downhill spiral, he realized.

Even Boner's delighted whinnying from outside didn't pull him from his revelation.

\--

"You're scaring it away."

" _You're_ scaring it away! You're the one who keeps running at it!"

"Sapnap you're the one not doing it right. Just give it the berries!"

"That's not how you do it, you have to get the babies."

"There's no babies around, just put that one on a lead and tie it up or something."

"No! I'm doing this right, George, whether you want to fuck it up or not. Go fuck up your own fox."

"Just take the dang fox and let's go!"

At the raised tone of voice, Sapnap took a step a bit too far to the right and ended up slipping on a particularly snowy rock. His face was only able to maintain a look of surprise for a second before he quickly switched to a look of pure pain upon the realization that slipping into a split was quite possibly just as, if not more, painful than getting aggressively kicked in the balls by a british child. Which he had experienced before, of course, which is why he had that comparison stored in his mind.

He watched, in pain, as the snowy fox quickly darted out of sight to the tune of George's intense and annoying laughter. He curled into himself for a good few moments, just reveling in his absolute failure.

"That was the best thing I've ever seen. Walk much?" More laughter. Nick let out a growl.

"Maybe that could have gone better if you stopped screwing this up for me and actually helped me out a little?" With a huff, he pushed himself off the ground and began dusting as much of the muddy snow off of his jacket that he could. All he wanted was a pet of his own, was that too much to ask for? It was like the universe was finally punishing him for all his misdeeds in the past. Good thing he didn't believe in karma! "Can you at least get me some more berries? I have to breed the fox if I want to get a pet, but I have to lure it to me first."

"No," Gogy huffed, crossing his arms. "I'm not spending all afternoon running around for foxes with you. You said this would be fun, but I'm starting to think it's not even worth the diamond you're paying me."

Sap pursed his lips. "If you even want that diamond, we actually have to _catch_ one, George. You can't just spend quality time with me for a couple minutes and then call it a day and take a diamond from me, that's not how friendship works."

"It's been half an hour!" George threw his arms in the air in exasperation. "And it's fucking cold! If I wanted to run around in the freezing winter biomes, I'd go live in that new snow place with Tubbo."

"Tubbo's making a new snow place?"

"Not the point, Sapnap."

Sapnap rolled his eyes at that, then turned on his heels and tried peering hard into the snow to see if he could spot the tracks the fox might have left behind as it ran away. He really wanted this for some reason, but he couldn't pinpoint why. Why couldn't George just see that and understand? He always had to make things difficult. It pissed Sapnap off, and he'd totally tell it to his face, but not now. Not when he needed George here with him to catch the fox.

"I'm not going deeper into the forest, Sapnap."

"Why not!?" Frustrated, he turned to fully face his friend, anger radiating off his otherwise shivering form. He tried to look as upset and intimidating as possible, but George wasn't taking the bait. So he continued, "Can't you just help do this for me? Just this one thing, I literally just want this one thing and that's it. This is all I'm asking of you George!" The look on George's face, however, was anything but sympathetic. "Please? Just this _one_ thing?" He was laying it on thick.

George turned from him without so much as a second glance. Already he was beginning to head back. "Find another friend to hunt foxes with. I'm going inside where it's warm."

"No!" Before he knew it, Sapnap was reaching out and yanking George's arm back harder than he intended to.

The british man yelped, almost tripping over the muddy snow below him as he was abruptly stopped in his tracks. The look he turned back to give to Sapnap told him he'd went just a bit too far. Even through his glasses he could see George's now seething anger. He let go, already feeling sorry.

"Fuck off, Sapnap."

"George, I'm sorry." But already George picked up the pace and was bounding out of the woods before Sapnap's very eyes. Well. That could have gone better than he planned. He turned back towards the fox prints that he managed to spot in the snow. New flakes were already beginning to fall slowly from the skies. If he didn't follow it now, he wouldn't be able to track it later. And who knew when the next time he'd find a fox around here was? There was no chance of finding one in the Greater SMP. Not enough trees around. But well... if he didn't follow George then...

Sapnap let out a sigh, watching the steam light up the air around him for a second, then turned to follow his friend.

George had already ran off pretty far, but he still managed to catch up with him not too much later. He was huffing and puffing, which burned his frost laced lungs, but he still fell into stride beside him. His eyes were cast downward, trying to avoid any roots or rocks that might be clogging up the path, as he kept up the quick pace. George didn't even glance at him.

"You've been acting like an asshole lately."

"What? No I haven't," he said between catches in his breath. But deep down he knew he was talking out of his ass.

"Ever since Tommy blew up the community house, you've been standoffish and stuff."

"George, I don't even know what that word means-"

"You're being a douche! And all.. clingy and stuff. Like yeah, shit happened and Dream's being an ass to us, but don't take it out on me."

Sapnap shook his head, trying to clear the million thoughts that ran through his mind at George's words. He had a lot he wanted to say in that moment, but chose not to. George was partially right, but he definitely wouldn't understand if Nick tried to explain himself. He just wasn't that kind of friend. But! He was at least a friend that was good to go fox hunting with! Or at least that's what Sapnap had thought!!

"Geooooorge," he whined, choosing to drown out his thoughts with joking, "why don't you want to hunt foxes with meeeee?"

"Ugh," the british man rolled his eyes hard enough to be seen through his clout goggles. Sapnap felt like ripping them off his head and tossing them as far as he could throw, but decided against it. George seemed pretty wound up at the moment.

"I know I've been kinda douchey, but it's cause I'm lonelyyyyy. I just want a companion, and you hate meeee. The _least_ you could do is get me a fox!" A mischievous smile.

"Ugh," again. "If you want companionship so bad, go hit up one of your fiances."

Sapnap opened his mouth to crack another joke, but stopped. Not only because he managed to trip himself up on the stairs to the prime path, but because George's comment genuinely had caught him off guard. He honestly didn't even know that George had known, but it made sense. It wasn't like he and the others had tried to hide their relationship or anything. But to hear about it was... like a blast to the past.

It'd been weeks since he'd seen his fiances, especially since doomsday had finally passed. Last he heard of Quackity, he'd abandoned L'manberg for his own agenda, and Karl had just been nowhere in sight. He wanted to see them, of course he wanted to see them! But it just.. wasn't the time. Or at least, it had _been_ atime. A long time. Would they even still talk to each other anymore? Would they even still get married?

Sapnap must have been silent for longer than he realized, because then George continued. "You could always just go see them and leave _me_ alone. Heaven knows I'd rather be sleeping than doing dumb shit with you at the turn of a hat."

"Dime."

"What?"

"It's at the turn of a dime."

"Your wiener is _built_ like a dime."

"Your box is built like a fish!"

George's next words were cut off in Sapnap's mind as he was instead interrupted by a heavy thump followed by a groan emanating from somewhere nearby. Sapnap's steps stuttered as he immediately recognized the voice it belonged to.

"What was that?" George turned in the direction of the sound, confusion written across his face, but Sapnap didn't have time to answer. He was already running.

\--

Karl couldn't quite feel his arm, not the way he should have been able to, at least. It wasn't bad, not really. Just.. wrong. It felt hot and wrong, tilted in a wrong way and pressing against his own flesh in a wrong way. Like something beneath the flesh wanted to burst out of him. That feeling, though, was completely dwarfed by the aching and spinning in his head. He felt like throwing up, gouging out his eyes, and laughing hysterically all at once. It certainly wasn't normal, but he couldn't find it in himself to call out for help. Or make any sound, other than the constant pained groans that kept falling from his lips without him noticing.

He tried to prop himself up with his other arm and he noticed his fingers slipping on something sticky that was quickly cooling under his body. He tried to look at the liquid but everything he saw was too dark to be reality. Sparks of pink and blue, (or was it magenta and teal?) flashing in the inky darkness behind his pupils everywhere he looked. And a constant ringing nightmare that resonated through his entire body until eventually, finally, he felt his lunch being ripped from his esophagus and splattering onto the ground to join the puddle of slick liquid that pooled there.

He felt like shit, figuratively and literally.

He tried to spit away the foul taste of stomach acid in his mouth and lick his dry lips. He needed to stand up, but his head was still swimming. He didn't even notice the presence of the other man who'd entered the room until he felt hands clutching tightly to his shaking frame and pulling him into something of a sitting positon.

Blinking several times cleared some of the ink from his eyes and allowed him to look up into the terrified face of... of... his fiance! Sapnap, his fiance, was staring at him. No, not staring. More like... like yelling at him. He couldn't hear it, not really, but he remembered how nice it was to see his fiance's face. He let a smile creep across his face.

"ay!? Karl?? Karl look at me! Karl!! Are you okay?? What happened, what's wrong?! How did you get like this, what happened?!?"

"Sapnap," he felt, more than heard, himself say. "My arm is wrong." He held up his left arm, which he finally realized was twisted into something of a boomerang shape, which it certainly hadn't been before.

"Holy shit, Karl, what happened?" another voice joined in. Karl peeked over Sapnap's shoulder and met the eyes of Gogy, whose face was slowly shifting to match Sapnap's horror and confusion. He couldn't tell why George would be confused, though, it wasn't like he was entirely prominent in Karl's life much.

Karl raised a hand in George's direction. "Miles.. You look like..."

"What??" Sapnap was interrupting him. He didn't mind it much, but it was still rude. "Karl, we're getting you a healer." He looked back at George. "Can you go ask Bad if he has any healing potions? Or Punz, or Eret or... fucking Tommy! Someone that has potions!"

"Don't yell at me! I'll go ask, christ.. Just make sure the bleeding stops." George turned and began to walk away.

"Run, George!"

"Okay!" George turned and began to _run_ away.

Sapnap looked back at Karl, inspecting his face and hands to make sure nothing was too immediately wrong. "You're gonna be okay, Karl. We're going to get you help."

"You know," Karl almost giggled, "you really didn't have to yell at the Gogster like that. Mans was just trying to see if I was okay."

Sapnap finally met his eyes and.. Karl could physically see him debating in his mind whether to laugh or wail. Eventually, much to Karl's pleasure, the urge to smile won out and Sapnap let out a chuckle that seemed to drain the life from him.

"I don't understand," he began, laying a hand over his eyes, "how you can be sitting here, covered in your own blood and vomit, and still crack jokes to me."

"Ew, I'm covered in vomit? Get me a bath before you get me a healer, please."

Another laugh. "Karl shut. Up. Okay, we're getting you a potion. Okay?"

"I think Technoblade has some." Karl's mind was finally beginning to clear up and he leaned into Sapnap's touch, looking up into his eyes with what he assumed was his best "I just fell onto my arm and broke it, and then threw up because of my extreme headache" smile. "Could go ask him?"

Nick hesitated, then shook his head. "No one knows where Technoblade is, Karl. Somewhere off in a tundra, or something. We're not going to a tundra to get you a potion."

With that, Sapnap changed his grip on Karl's body and hefted him up onto his chest. He swayed a bit, overestimating just how heavy his fiance would be, but eventually shifted his weight just enough to be able to carry him comfortably.

"Woooow, my man really said 'strength is my hottest attribute.'" Karl let out another trilling giggle and Sapnap shook his head to disguise the smile that he failed to keep off of his face.

"Now's not the time, Karl, your head is bleeding and your arm is broken."

"Yoooo, my arm looks like a boomerang. Watch me throw that shit." Another suppressed smile from Nick. "Beyblade beyblade let it rip!"

Finally, Sapnap broke out into intense bumbling laughter, only for Karl to join in with his own trills. Karl knew Sapnap loved his jokes. It was his favorite way to cheer him up. Seeing Nick with a look of horror was a scene nobody wanted to see. Besides, it wasn't like Karl was even really in any dange-

Karl's body froze as several dozen memories collided in his mind at once, causing him to gasp and stiffen. Sapnap finally stopped laughing and looked at him, only for the worry and confusion to return to his face.

"What, what is it, what happened?"

Karl shook his head, not even really understanding the situation himself.

He had just been looking around his personal library not too long ago, trying to find a book he hadn't read yet to distract himself from the atrocities of the world, when all of a sudden a book had fallen from his shelf and startled him out of his skin. He picked up the book and tried to read it, but found that the pages were empty. Flipping through the empty pages, however, had made him feel dizzy, as if he was falling. And before he knew it, he was waking up in a different place, in a different body, in a different... time? But that made no sense? How had he gone through time, he had just been in present day Dream SMP.

Thinking back to what he saw, Karl finally began to piece the puzzle of his memory together. He had been in a town, surrounded by.. familiar looking people. In a dangerous scene where murderers had ransacked the town and left nothing to survive. Not even Karl... the abruptness of his death had him flying out of his trance and straight into a staircase, which he proceeded to fall down, where he lay at the bottom until Sapnap found him.

The whole scene had been so surreal. Well, surely it obviously wasn't real. Karl was just dreaming or something. He just lulled himself into a daydream trance or something, maybe. And he'd fallen asleep standing up, with the book in his hand.

The book! Where was the book?!

Karl set himself up as straight as he could in Sapnap's arms and looked around the small house for the book he'd dropped. He remembered the cover of it, it'd been a pretty spiral that he recognized but couldn't place a finger on. Surely if he saw it again, he'd recognize it immediately. Surely if he just... surely if he!

"Woah woah, Karl, calm down!" The sound of his fiance's voice finally broke through his mind. He noticed just how fast his heart had been beating and tried to will himself to calm down. Here he was trying to cheer Sapnap up and all he was succeeding in doing was making them both freak out.

"Sorry," he said, a bit more timid than he'd meant to. He cleared his voice and tried again. "Was just thinking about how hot your mom is."

"Jesus, Karl. Is anything ever serious to you? You scared me, you've _been_ scaring me for the past ten minutes!"

"Sorry," he responded again, feeling nothing but stupid. "I just... fell down the stairs. Something surprised me and I tripped."

Sapnap sighed. "You have to be more careful than that, Karl. If something ever happened to you, I'd..." Sapnap hesitated, and Karl knew why. Sapnap probably, honestly, wouldn't have been affected much if something had happened to Karl. And lying about it wasn't exactly the most noble thing to do at the moment. Karl finished for him.

"It's okay, Sap. I get it. I was just being clumsy. But really, I'm fine. I think I just cut my eyebrow or something."

With a half smile, Sapnap just sighed again. "Just be more careful next time, alright?"

"Of course! You know my middle name is Cautious, right?"

"That's Tommy's bit."

"Rats!"

The pair's dialogue was interrupted by George slamming a hand against the doorframe as he practically fell against it in exhaustion. He looked as if he'd just run around the entire perimeter of the entirety of the L'manberg crater at least 3 times. Sapnap, though, seemed to be entirely thankful for it.

"George! Did you get potions?"

Huffing, George shook his head, much to Karl's dismay. The shock from his rude awakening had finally worn off and the pain he was supposed to feel from his horrendously broken arm was already making its way up to terrorize his brain, so he'd been hoping to at least have some form of pain killer.

George took a few more deep breaths before finally wheezing out, "No one in the Greater SMP has any." A pause, to catch his breath more. "But some people outside of it might." More pauses, this time longer because he was especially in need of a deep breath. "The closest person is probably Quackity." Pause. Huff. Huff. "In his cabin."

This got Karl's attention. "Quackity is nearby? Even closer than Snowchester?"

"Tubbo surely doesn't have any," this time it was Sapnap's turn to talk. "That kid doesn't even know how to make his own netherite armor."

"Quackity's your best bet." George fully slid down to rest on the floor of the doorframe. "He lives off to the west, according to Sam."

"Sam knows where he is..?" Karl's voice was quieter now. He didn't know why it surprised him that someone else knew where his fiance was better than he even knew where he was. It wasn't like they'd talked to each other in... god, had it been two weeks already? Maybe even three?

Sapnap took one look at Karl's face, then turned back to George. "Does he have a map we could borrow?"

George shook his head again. "But he said it's a pretty straightforward path."

There was a pause again, the silence of Karl's almost empty house resonating in all of their minds. He knew what the issue was, Sapnap and Karl had no right to be crawling to Alex's doorstep asking for potions after their falling out following doomsday. Things had been bad then, with all of them being on different sides of the conflict. Sapnap wanted to trust Dream, Quackity wanted to leave behind the conflict, and Karl.. well Karl had just wanted to be safe. Their last talk with one another hadn't been pure, that's for certain. But even still, Quackity still cared about them, right? Right?

"Why didn't you go get it from him?" Sapnap spoke up, his eyebrows already furrowing in anger. "We're wasting time just sitting here."

In return, George's own eyebrows furrowed, but his narrowed eyes came along with them. "If _you_ want to go find Quackity, be my guest. I'll wrap up Karl's arm for you and clean up the blood, but I'm _not_ being your errand boy. That's _your_ fiance. _YOU_ talk to him."

Karl flinched. He knew George was right.

Sapnap must have known it too, because he simply blew out a breath and looked around for a surface to place Karl on. "Okay, you're right." He sat the boy down on the stairs. Already Karl missed his warmth. "I'm sorry, I was just upset." He paused, pursing his lips. "Please help us wrap up Karl's injuries so we can go see Quackity?"

\--

Quackity fluffed up his pillow and slammed his head down against it for what felt like the umpteenth time. He just wanted to get comfortable, but laying in furniture you made yourself out of supplies from the woods and nearby villages did _not_ make for a pleasant sleep. He wondered when he'd go and find some proper wool to replace his bed with. He just had such a hard time killing things lately, especially when he planned to use his axe to kill them. Especially when they happened to be _pigs_. He shivered.

Not only because of his memories, but because of the cold draft that blew in around the cracks in the window frame. With a frown, he turned away from the rest of the room and faced the wall instead. Another cold night in his cabin. Although, it was hard to remember a time when he hadn't been cold. When was the last time he'd slept in a proper bed anyways? Was it with them..

He wished he could stop thinking about his fiances all the time. Them, and Tubbo. All people he failed. All people he missed, in one way or another. All people he.. he'd never see again, probably. Not in this state at least. He wasn't sure he could show his face to them at this point. What would they say? What would their faces say? How disgusted would they be in him, for deserting them? How disappointed? How angry?

A whimper rose out of his throat without his permission and he pulled the sheets up to his nose to smother it. He closed his eyes. Just forget about it, just forget about it, just forget about it...

There was a crunch outside his window that made his hairs stand on edge. He didn't know why, though. It was probably just an animal traipsing around his territory trying to look for a fresh patch of grass to chew on. It wouldn't surprise him. No doubt the animals knew by now how much he didn't kill them. Especially the pigs. God, he hoped a pig wasn't anywhere near his house.

The crunch sounded again and he twitched before sitting up in his bed. The weight of the crunch sounded way to heavy to have been a sheep or a pig. A cow, maybe? All the way out here? In the winter? Or maybe an iron golem had wandered a bit too far away from the village. Would going out to greet it make it see him as a threat.

He waited for a bit, then he heard it again. Closer. It was coming closer to his house. Finally, curiosity got the better of him and he kicked the sheets off his body. Slipping his feet into his makeshift slippers, he went over to the window and drew back the raggedy curtains he'd crafted himself to keep out the cold. He almost didn't see anything outside. Until he did.

Drawing in a deep breath, his blood froze over. A light. He saw a light coming near his cabin. Someone was coming. Either they were coming to see him, or they had just seen a house and decided to stop by. He couldn't imagine who would be just ambling around in the forest at this time of night, though. The sun had gone down hours ago, and anyone who was anyone would have for sure just gone to bed somewhere else. They had to have been looking for him.

But who knew where he was?

He remembered talking to Awesamdude before he left, but that was weeks ago. And Sam had nothing to do with him, he was in cahoots with Dream anyways. No, it was someone else. Someone was coming to him in the dead of night. Presumably to...

Quackity was shaking before he realized it, pulling away from the window with such speed that he almost fell over his own damn feet. He clamped a hand over his mouth and took another silent step away from the window. What other reason would someone have to come see Alex in the middle of the night? They were trying to. No, he. He was coming to...

He shook his head vigorously, then turned on his heel and tried to run as silently as he could into the main living space. He darted through the darkness, almost tripping over his own shoes, to the entrance and looked up to the hook where he usually kept his axe. Only to go white with horror. He remembered now, he'd thrown it down after collecting wood. Damn his own stupidness! It would be the death of him.

The crunching footsteps only grew closer and closer. It was only a matter of time before he, no, whoever it was, finally found themselves at his doorstep. He had to think fast. Had to act quick. Seconds were already being lost by him standing around.

Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself before walking deeper into the house. It was dark, he knew. He didn't want to turn on the light, though, for fear of whoever it was suddenly deciding to no longer take their time with approaching. Instead, he felt around in the darkness with his hands, creeping slowly across the floor and trying not to trip and fall.

His side hit the couch and he knew he was close. Planting his feet firmly in one place, he leaned forward as far as he could go and flailed his arms about in the darkness. Eventually he found it. The sharp stick he used to handle metal. Perfect. Or, well, perfect enough. He let out a sigh of relief and began creeping back towards the door.

The steps had almost approached by now. He had to act even faster. He couldn't let him get the upper hand, couldn't let himself go down like this. At the very least, he'd be taking that bastard down with him. Whether his teeth remained intact or not. He pressed himself against the door and listened quietly. He could barely hear the steps over the pounding in his chest, but he managed. Just a little bit closer. Just a bit closer...

When the footsteps seemed to be right outside his door, he acted.

Quackity flung the door open and lunged forward, his stick pointed right towards where he imagined his eye would be. His actions were met with screams, most of which were, surprisingly, not his own.

He hesitated and stopped, almost tripped, but managed to cease the attack in time. He stared back in matched horror at the eye he'd almost just driven a metal pick through. Instead of a deadly red, like he'd imagined, he was staring back at a... familiar black.

"Quackity!"

"Alex!"

Both names screamed at the same time immediately caused a rush of warmth to well up in Quackity's heart. It wasn't that impressive, he realized, that they had just remembered his name. But even still..

He panted in relief and dropped the stick, choosing instead to give them a glare back. "What the hell are you two doing at my house this late?! You can't just drop by unannounced and expect me to not think you were trying to kill me!"

"Sorry, Quacky," Karl piped up, kicking his legs from the precarious position he was placed on Sapnap's back. "We would have announced, but we didn't know where you were till last second."

"Yeah, you could have left a note or something," Sapnap continued, hefting the smaller man up on his back by about an inch. He looked tired, and cold.

Alex licked his lips before finally letting his guard fully drop. Just when he couldn't stop thinking about them, here they were to ruin his night. There was no way he'd be able to sleep now that they'd be clogging up his thoughts for at least the next few hours. "Well, still. What would even make you come all the way here to-" he stopped, his eyes actually landing on the state of Karl's arm. It was badly wrapped in a tight bandage around his antebrachial region. It matched the tight bandage around his forehead. His breath stuttered for a moment. "Wh-what. What's..."

"Karl fell down the stairs," Sapnap finished his thought. "He broke his arm, and no one in the SMP had healing potions right now. Do you have any to spare?"

Quackity let his shoulders drop. Of course that was why they'd come see him. He didn't even know why he thought... even for a second that they... he shook his head. "Uh yeah, sure. In a chest inside." He looked back up at them, forcing a smile. "Come in, it's cold."


	2. And in the dead of night...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The sun will rise at night  
> Burn so bright  
> Take me to another world"
> 
> Karl was getting better, the potions were the main cause for that. But also just having them there... 
> 
> But something irked him.

Alex's house was... something. To say the least. Not that Sapnap had any room to talk, since he happened to be living in George's house at the moment, but something about its empty and raggedyness set him on edge. It seemed... inadequate. Especially for a few weeks stay? Let alone any longer than that..

He set Karl down on the couch, where the older man landed with a gentle "oof" and instantaneously felt a wave of relief and relaxation fall over him in ripples. They'd been walking in the cold winter night for what seemed like forever, and Karl refused to be set on his feet for the entirety of the trip. Sap loved him, not to get him wrong, but the man was just... such a bottom sometimes.

"Tight crib," Karl commented as he shifted his weight towards the less offended side of his body. "You make it yourself?"

"Yeah, actually." Quackity sounded as if he was surprised Karl would ask about it. He seemed to be setting a bucket full of water on top of a pile of logs. He then grabbed a flint and steel from a nearby chest and lit the fire into life. Sapnap watched as he dropped the tool back into the chest and moved across the room (could it be called a living room if there didn't seem to be much life in it?) to fiddle with something else. He felt awkward. Was he supposed to sit down or something?

Karl, unaware of Sapnap's own anxiety, continued on with his wittiest response yet, "Wow. It's obvious."

Quackity stopped whatever he was doing and turned to Karl almost slowly. His face seemed to not know what emotion it wanted to show off in that moment. First he looked confused, then offended, then some weird mixture of emotions that caused his face to kind of scrunch up to a point. Sapnap had to stop himself from laughing.

"You know, Karl, now's not the time to be insulting the guy who's providing you with healing supplies for your broken arm," he said finally, turning back to his task at hand.

"Oh I'm sorry," Karl returned, "I forgot you were a little bitch who can't handle his emotions."

Sapnap heard Quackity take a deep breath as he closed the chest he had open. He himself kind of pursed his lips.

"My bad, I'll get someone to call the wahmbulance." And then, "Waaaaaaah!"

"Karl," he and Quackity said at the same time.

"Woah don't gang up on me, I can't handle two at once," the older boy giggled. Sapnap rolled his eyes.

"Okay, whatever Karl." Alex took that time to turn around and hand Sapnap a bottle of a thin iridescent pink liquid. Nick smiled and took it from him gratefully. "Here, hope that helps prince charming over there with his... fuckin boomerang arm."

"Awww, you noticed."

"Karl!" This time Sapnap's turn to feel angry. Instantly the injured man curled into himself and pasted a pout across his face. Sapnap could feel the anger in his stomach cool and turn into a soft longing that he'd forgotten existed inside his range of emotions, but he actively chose not to show it in this moment. Which was turning out to be somewhat of a hassle, he was coming to realize. "Have a bit of a serious bone in your body for once. Quackity is being very nice to us right now, and I'd like you to apologize." He chose to mask his softness with his favorite parent voice as he looked down upon the other man.

"I'm sowwy, Alex," Karl said between pouting lips. Sapnap would have liked for Karl to have _actually_ been serious and not just "sorry" but he supposed he'd take what he could get.

Quackity just sighed. "It's fine, Karl. I understand your personality. It's not like it's my first time meeting you." Then he smiled. "I appreciate the humor, despite the pain."

Karl returned his smile. "Oh yeah, it's a lot of pain. Like I don't even wanna move my _shoulder_ , it's so much pain. The whole walk here was just pure painful for me, I don't even know how I'm still standing right now."

"You didn't walk here, and you're not standing," Nick butt in, walking over to Karl and handing him the small bottle of instant health. Karl gave what Sapnap could only guess was his most genuine "thank you" face and downed it in two quick gulps.

Quackity made kind of a grimace. "You know, I've been trying to drink less potions lately. Do you know what's in those things?"

"Doesn't that one just have a glistening melon?" Sap raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Well _yeah._ _That_ one is fine, but like... potion of fire resistance? Magma cream? Why would I want to drink a potion made of magma c*m?"

The room went silent as the trio stared at Quackity.

"Alex," Sapnap began.

Karl's trilling laughter lit up the room as he rocked back at forth on the couch, absolute giddiness radiating off of him.

Sapnap watched as Quackity's cheeks began to heat up in embarrassment. "What, what?!"

"Alex," his fiance began again, holding back his own laughter, "I don't think that's what magma cream is."

"Then why is it called magma cream? Why do you get it off of magma cubes?!"

"I think," Karl interrupted as he gulped in a breath to begin laughing again, "it's like their blood or something!"

Alex pointed an offending finger at Karl with a glare. "Stop laughing at me! You're literally only laughing because you think you're better than me, okay!?"

That made Karl laugh harder, and it was only a matter of time before Sapnap joined in.

"Stop. Stop! Literally sto- okay guys. Guys please. Stop laughing, guys, please. Stop. STOP. STOP IT! STOP LAUGHING AT ME STOP!" His voice was raising but he was smiling too. It was only natural.

However, his fiances only noticed one thing.

"Guys _please_ ," they mocked at the same time, sending them into yet another fit of ground shaking laughter.

"No no no! You guys made me say that! You guys are literally bullying me stop. You're literally bullying me, stop! Stop laughing at mE!" He covered his face with his hands. "I didn't know what it meant please stop laughing at me, stop laughiiiing!"

\--

Quackity really hadn't meant for his fiances to stay the night, as absolutely terrible as that statement sounded, but it wasn't like he could just send them back to whence they came just because he wasn't expecting their company. Especially this late, especially when snow was beginning to come down hard. It was like every event in the universe had lined up to make this night the most tragic moment in all human history. Enough to rival that of a certain school...

He wasn't even entirely prepared for it. In fact, he was the opposite of prepared. Hell, he barely had a bed to himself, let alone two spares that he could just whip out at a moment notice. And it wasn't like he couldn't share a bed with them. Not that they hadn't slept together before, but his bed was too slim for even him. He'd be damned if he could fit a whole three bodies on it at one time without them being absolutely stacked on top of each other and not moving a muscle all night long.

So when he offered to let them stay, he really liked to believe he was doing it strictly out of the love in his heart and no other reason. Although maybe it was a little bit of resentment as well... because, well, making them sleep on the floor in a poorly made shack was definitely some type of revenge fantasy he could dig out of his heart if he searched hard enough.

Nonetheless, he didn't want them to be cold. Or lonely... so, against his better judgement, he joined them.

And before he knew it, he was laying on the floor on a thin blanket, next to Sapnap, who was next to the low fire, and dwarfed only by Karl who they'd chosen to give the couch to. His arm was healed, obviously. As was his head. But they'd be tender for a while. Side effects of using magic and not just care and patience. So they let him sleep on the softest surface in the room. Which, honestly... wasn't that soft..

"This shit made of bricks, Alex? How am I supposed to sleep on this?"

"Hey, you're the one who decided to get hurt in the late afternoon and force Sapnap to walk you all the way out to the middle of the winter woods to get a healing potion."

"Yeah. Speaking of," Sapnap sat up from his position and looked at the two, "how come he gets the couch? My back _and_ my feet hurt. I've been working the most, I deserve the luxury."

Karl turned to both of them with his famous pout. "My arm is still tingly, Sap. I could end up bending it wrong and bweaking it if I sleep on the hard floor."

Sapnap grumbled under his breath.

"Honestly, it should be _me_ sleeping on the couch. It's _my_ house," Alex spoke up. "You're lucky I even let you stay, you jerkwads."

"Oh so we're the jerkwads?" Sapnap turned fully to Quackity now. "Says the man who completely deserted us after all hell broke loose."

That comment caught Quackity off guard. He hadn't suspected that to actually be put in the air like that. He wasn't even sure why Sapnap was addressing it, he seemed like one of the last people to want to ever bring up that whole can of worms. Nevertheless, Sapnap looked quite serious about it, so it was easy to tell he wasn't exactly joking. But he also didn't look quite as mad as he would have thought him to be. He almost looked... well, if Quackity were to put a label on it, he almost looked sad.

"Yeah... about that..." He paused, not sure how to finish his statement. He wasn't too sorry about it, actually. Well, yeah, it was a bad thing. But the space he had while alone in the woods was comforting to him. He enjoyed the loneliness sometimes. Being able to do his own thing and think about his own actions was.... suffocating, yeah, but when it wasn't, then it wasn't. He didn't know how to portray that to them, though, without them feeling absolutely betrayed. So instead he just.... "Honk...chu...honk...chu..."

"Mans has the worst fake snoring sounds I've ever heard," Karl piped up, followed by a giggle.

"Honk... I'msleepingchuuu... honk... thisisrealchuuu.."

This made both of them laugh.

Quackity could feel his own cheeks light up in delight but managed to suppress the laughter he wanted to add to the chorus. He couldn't back out of his fake sleeping now, then they'd _know_ it was fake.

"Alex, we know it's fake."

He couldn't back out of his fake sleeping now, then they'd _really_ know it's fake.

Sapnap sighed. "Fine, fair enough. I'm sleepy too, actually."

"Yeah, I'm gonna hit da hay," Karl added in, with a swift smack to the pillow he was resting his head on. "Alright it's hit. Now what?"

Quackity had to bite his lip to keep from laughing this time.

"Karl, your stupidity knows no bounds," Sapnap practically sang as he sank back against the thin sheet on the floor.

"Awww, you noticed," the boy bounced back.

Alex's eyebrows furrowed. "Guys, pl-" He paused. "Can we please just go to sleep?"

Sapnap readjusted the thicker sheet on top of them and curled it around his neck, almost nuzzling into it to try to gain its warmth, and closed his eyes. "Okay, whatever you say, baby. Goodnight."

His cheeks lit up again. "Nooo, please don't call me that," but he was still smiling.

"Okay baby girl," Karl accentuated as he flopped over onto his side and closed his eyes as well. "We'll try not to call you baby anymore."

"God, this was a mistake."

"Hey!" A hand reached over and smacked down onto Alex's chest. It wasn't too offending, though. He didn't even flinch. "You said to go to sleep, just go to sleep."

"Okay! Okay fine. We'll go to sleep."

"Okay, good, we're going to sleep."

"Okay! Good."

"Good."

"We're sleeping."

"We are. Good."

"Very good. Go to sleep."

"We're literally sleeping."

"Yeah we're going to sleep. It's good."

"Good on us for sleeping."

"We're so good at sleeping."

"Agreed."

Silence fell over the trio. There was a fuzzy feeling in the air that was making Alex's eyelids dance closed. He felt comfortable and warm, something he couldn't remember feeling for... god, how long had it been? Surely he'd have time to think more about it later. Maybe even talk with them about it. Maybe this was... the beginning of something. Or the continuation? He wasn't sure what to label it. But hopefully things would still be okay in the morning. As much as he didn't think he'd admit it, he missed this. So much...

He let his mind say a silent prayer, right before his thoughts drifted off towards snowier pastures.

...

"-ex? Quacky? Wake up."

Quackity's mind was sluggishly coming to, much to his dismay. He let out a groan and tried to swat away the hand that was brushing at his face. This, however, only made the hand return with renewed vigor.

"Quackity, wake up." He responded with another groan. "Quackity this is serious! Karl is gone!"

Alex's eyes flew open at the speed of a thousand suns and he sat up so fast his forehead knocked aggressively into the forehead of his fiance, Sapnap. The pair groaned and held their heads in pain.

"What the hell, Sap, why were you literally leaning over me like the grim reaper?"

"Sorry if I didn't expect you to bolt upright like a possessed body out of nowhere!"

Quackity glared at him, then felt his hairs stand on end with a sort of prickly anxiety that churned in his stomach and was exiting through his ears. He turned towards the couch and, sure enough, there was no sight of the older man anywhere. To add to it, turning his head further to the left, he caught sight of the door, which was open just a sliver, through with the light of the falling full moon was pouring in. His heart sunk down to his toes.

"There's no way he went out at this time of night," Sapnap began quietly. "It's cold as hell. He'd _die_." It sounded almost as if he wasn't even talking to Quackity, as if he was just trying to tell himself that. Quackity knew why. There was no possibility that anything he was saying was right.

Well, except the part about him dying.

He was frozen for far longer than he wanted to be, but then he was pushing the covers off of him and lunging towards the door to grab his boots. He began slipping them on, hearing Sapnap standing up as well and walking closer to him.

"We have to follow him. He could get hurt."

Sapnap didn't even say anything in response. He was already putting his own shoes on.

\--

Karl's body was racked with yet another sneeze that nearly caused him to slip on a root and fall face first. He managed to keep his composure, thankfully, but he kept his eyes downwards as he continued on. He couldn't afford to trip and fall and rebreak his arm, especially after he'd used up a whole healing potion on it. He needed to be careful. Being in the middle of the woods in a winter like this would be the death of him.

Already, his feet were numb and he was almost falling on practically every other step, but he kept going. He wrapped his arms tighter around himself and suppressed the urge to curl up, close his eyes, and wait for the sun to rise on his frozen to death body. He had to keep going. He wasn't sure... why, exactly.

Well, no, that wasn't true at all. He knew exactly why.

Late into the night, as he was finally falling asleep in the comfort of his fiance's home, he heard a voice in his dreams calling out to him. Startled, he'd woken up, only to feel a pull on his heart that directed him in the direction of the Greater SMP. He'd left something there, something he needed to get. He couldn't pinpoint what, but it was important. The voice told him so. Before he couldn't find it again.

For the hundredth time, he tried to shake the voice out of his head. But it was persistent. A pounding force reminding him to push forward, to keep going. That he was almost there. That he _needed_ to be there.

He didn't really fancy getting himself all dressed up and then leaving the comfort of the cabin to run out into the cold winter night, but he had to. That's what the voice told him, anyways. He couldn't even tell whose voice it was, but it was sounding more familiar by the second. It wasn't a harsh voice, per say. Maybe it was even a little gentle and comforting. Didn't change the fact that he hated it.

He wrapped the blanket he'd snagged from Q's house even tighter around himself and looked up towards the horizon, then almost melted in both relief and fear. He was almost to the SMP, and the sun was almost rising. How long had he been walking? Quackity's house had been so far, so how long had he been trekking??

The voice told him to ignore it, and to speed up, which he did.

He almost tumbled down the slopes and hills that lead up towards the SMP but managed to hang on for a bit longer. New snow had been falling for a while now, so his limbs were frozen to a point (but thankfully not blue or purple) but he found hand holds and foot holes that propelled him up hills and held him from falling down valleys as he got ever closer. The sun itself was climbing higher in the sky, slowly but hopefully. Karl was almost there.

When his shoes finally touched the prime path, he almost collapsed with relief. He was proud of himself for walking so far, if at least a little still on edge that he'd managed to even walk that far on his own. He'd definitely have to apologize profusely to his fiances when he went back later, but he had a feeling they'd just be happy he was even alive. Hell, _he_ was happy he was even alive. And that was saying something, because Karl didn't usually feel like things would kill him.

As he walked past the various buildings along the path, Karl knew exactly where he was going. Or at least, the voice knew where he was going. His eyes widened in realization. His house! Of course. To get... to get something. Something important. Karl scratched his head as he tried to figure out what, and his recollection was interrupted.

"Hey Karl! What are you doing out so bright and early?" Karl's head snapped up to meet the gaze of Captain Puffy as she seemed to be building a structure in the middle of an uninterrupted patch against the side of the path.

"Oh, hey Puffy. I was just on a walk and was heading back to my house," he lied, trying not to let the lie show on his face.

"Ah, that's nice. I didn't know you were a morning walks type of person," she paused with a smile, then cast her gaze back to the work at hand. "Last I heard, you broke your arm? Did you get that fixed?"

"Yeah, got some potions from Ponk. No hassle at all." He tried to nonchalantly walk past her without showing his eagerness to get back to his house. The voice was rushing him. He had to get the thing back. Before the next... before the next one. The next something. It was going to happen soon so he had to go and get it.

Puffy chuckled. "How much did you have to pay for it?"

"None! Actually. He saw the state of my arm and passed out on the spot, so we just stole it from him!"

"Right. The definition of no hassle," she laughed again. "What even happened for that to happen?" Karl was getting farther away from her, but still she tried talking to him. He hoped to god she wouldn't try to follow him.

But he felt rude. She just wanted to talk.. He turned around and pasted a fresh smile on his face.

"Fell down the stairs. You know how it is. You're practicing your salsa dancing in peace and then all of a sudden you're face first at the bottom of the staircase and your fiance is yelling at you." He added a forced giggle for added effect.

"Yep, definitely know how that is. That's definitely a normal thing that happens to me _every_ day."

"I'm saying! Like they should have salsa-proof stairs for when things like that happen. Did you know at least 50 salsa dancers a year will fall down their stairs while practicing?" Naturally, Karl was falling into his usual joking style, which he began to curse himself for. It would only open Puffy up to more talking, opening his time up to being wasted. Soon, he had to go soon or it would happen again.

"Really?" Puffy returned as she placed down another block of oak wood and was hammering it into place. "I could almost believe that statistic if there were even more than 50 people in the SMP to take that statistic from."

"It's from the world, not the SMP, Puffy. Life exists outside of our little community. God, how selfish can you be?"

"Oh! Sorry, sorry. Guess I'm just self centered like that." More laughter bubbled up from her throat. "Well, if you're ever looking for a place to salsa dance at, feel free to stop by my therapy office any time soon! I'm going to be opening up to customers as soon as possible."

Karl opened his mouth to say more, but before he could he was cut off by a far away shout that seemed to come from by the woods. He and Puffy looked up and the air in Karl's lung froze in place as he saw two familiar figures standing right by the line of trees and headed straight for them, calling out to him. Those idiots had followed him all throughout the night.

"Is that Nick and Alex? Why are they calling for you?" She turned back to him. "Are you guys fighting? I can do couples therapy for you if you- hey!"

Karl had already turned and was sprinting back towards the direction of his house. He couldn't let them stop him, he'd already come this far. He couldn't let himself be distracted anymore. It was almost time!

He took a sharp turn and darted into his house, his breath coming out in huge waves and his eyes darting around the small space. There weren't many places to look. He had to get started.

He ran towards the stairs and stomped up them haphazardly, then flew about the room, knocking things over and looking under his bed. Not here. Not here. Not there. Nowhere! Where was it?? Where was it?!

He flung his covers off of his bed and searched under his mattress. Nope nope nope! Not there either. Where could it be? He was wasting time! The voice's yells were no longer as gentle and comforting. They were angry and anxious, which in turn only made his own mood match. He needed to find it. Where could it be??

The yelling in his head began to drown out all his other thoughts. He desperately needed to get it before it happened. He turned on his heels and raced back towards the staircase. He still had time to check downstairs if he worked fas-

Tripping.

Falling.

Oh no.

Screaming.

He only tumbled down a few steps as he finally collided with a firm chest that was sent spiraling backwards along with him. Both landed on the ground in a chorus of "oof" followed by another chorus of yelling.

"Karl!! What were you thinking? You almost got hurt again!" It was Quackity, he was trying to pry the man off of Sapnap, who was looking dazed and in pain, but grateful that they'd arrived in time. "Why did you run down the stairs like that, are you an idiot?!"

"Yes!" he found himself answering. "But right now's not the time, I need to look for something!"

Sapnap sat up, rubbing his head, as he set a fiery glare in Karl's direction. "Is _that_ why you came back here? To look for something? You walked through the whole winter night, risking falling and cracking your head open in the middle of the snow for us to potentially never find you again, to just get back here and almost break your arm again to look for something?"

"I know it sounds bad," he continued, still frantically looking around the room, "but it's important to me. You have to understand!"

"Understand what, Karl? What could be this important?" Quackity pulled him closer to his own chest. It was a comforting feeling, but not a comforting look. Karl felt small between their anger, like two walls pressing down on him until it would inevitably turn him into a sorry pile of mush. The yelling, though, was drowning it out, no matter how much his own feelings threatened to spill over. The chemical reaction between the two was explosive. He couldn't breathe, couldn't blink, couldn't think. His lungs burned and his heart was hammering out of his chest. He felt terrible, he was going to miss it. He felt small. He was going to miss it. He wanted to say sorry! He was going to miss it!!

Until finally he spotted it. Under a bookshelf. Right there, where he didn't see it while standing up. The book.

He scrambled out of his fiance's arms and made a dive for it, relief rushing in to fill the spaces where his anxiety had been just a few moments later.

"Karl!" he heard two pairs of voices scream from behind him. But he didn't notice, as when his fingers finally touched the leather bound bundle of pages, he immediately felt a rush of vibrations wash over him. Suddenly he was dizzy, being pulled. And suddenly he was falling.

His entire soul vibrated and twitched with the feeling of being dragged somewhere, like it was being taken from his body and pulled across the entire universe. It hurt like hell, but somehow wasn't entirely unpleasant. It felt like he was being ripped in two, but melded into something altogether. Everything was wrong and right at the same time. He didn't feel like he was himself. Or like he was, but wasn't who he thought he'd be... He felt like he was going insane!

There was a ringing in his ears grew louder and grew to an impossible crescendo in his mind, matched only by his own scream. He heard two more pairs of screams behind him, two pairs of hands holding onto his jeans.

For a second, he thought he was finally dying. That all his years of living life on the edge had caught up with him and he was finally being accepted into the afterlife. And he could have continued feeling that way, until he fell face first into a crashing wave of salty water.


	3. In a magical world...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "All the places where we could be  
> All the pretty things that we could see"
> 
> The fiances find themselves in an inexplicable situation, but hey they figure they might as well have some fun. Stress relief is always a good thing, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm depressed. But this story is fun to write!! Please do listen to the song it's amazing.
> 
> Also also, working on another song based story, but more angsty and bloody! Very excited for it, should finish it by tomorrow if all goes well.
> 
> Also also also! My cat says hi! :)

Karl's head was rushing, both figuratively and literally. For a moment he forgot which way was up, and couldn't even open his eyes from the insistent pressure pounding against his eyelids from the outside. Shocked, he tried to take a deep breath, only to start hacking and wheezing, bubbles leaving his mouth in a muffled scream while he fought for actual oxygen. Realizing he was underwater... He began flailing.

It didn't take long for someone to grab Karl's arm in a death like grip and begin dragging him in a direction that felt like up. He held onto the figure for his life and desperately kicked his legs as to propel him forward. He could feel his heart racing beneath his skin. He needed to breathe so badly, he felt like he was going to die. His nails gripped the flesh that was holding onto him almost enough to break skin, and in response the arm pulled him upwards with all its might.

Finally he broke the surface and gulped in the biggest breath of air.

Immediately he was coughing and choking on his own salty saliva, but he tried to will himself to keep breathing as calmly as he could. However, he felt himself sinking more, making his legs continue to kick and flail uselessly at the water. "I'm dying!" he called out.

"Karl! Tread, you nincompoop!" the voice of the hand said to him. Oh, right. Karl knew how to swim. He circled his feet below him and leveled out his pace, finally beginning to calm down.

Karl reached a hand out of the water to rub some of the saltyness from his eyes. After he was sure no stray droplets would purposefully sting him, he blinked them open and gazed around the area about him in curiosity. Well, this was new.

Sapnap was looking at him, concerned with a mixture of anger hidden underneath his visage. He also looked like he had been seconds away from drowning below the surface, so Karl gave him his best innocent and sheepish smile and ran a hand through his own soaked curls. "Found the book..."

"Karl, where are we right now?!"

Karl flinched at his tone, then looked around once more, actually registering some of the features around them. "Uhh. Umm... I think we're in the ocean."

Sapnap pinched the bridge of his nose and seemed to be taking deep breaths. "Oh really? I hadn't noticed that, Karl." He lowered his hand with a tight glare. "How did we get into the fUCKING OCEAN?!"

Karl spit out a particularly salty splash of water that had sniped him from a wave. "I think we fell in it."

Sapnap stared at him.

"Ayo where's Quackity?" he quickly deflected, pretending to look behind Sapnap for the other man. Only to realize that the question was genuine... he actually didn't see Quackity in sight.. He twirled amidst the waves, with Sapnap doing the same beside him. His eyes narrowed as they searched the horizon line and all about him to see if he could spot his fiance anywhere in the distance. To his and Sapnap's dismay, the other man was nowhere to be found. "Um... where _is_ Quackity..?"

"Alex!" Sapnap called, before abruptly letting go of Karl's hand and diving back beneath the surface of the water. Karl almost reached out for him before deciding that it was better that Sapnap just got him himself, as he was the stronger of the two and probably a better swimmer as well. Spitting up yet more water, he gradually calmed down enough to assess the situation.

He was, in fact, in the middle of the ocean. His clothes felt heavy and were weighing him down, and he felt like he should be panicking in the instance he was in. He took an assessment of his own body. Nothing felt painful or broken. Even his previously broken arm felt like it had been healed even more since he last checked. His legs were fine and the pain from his headache had faded away, and the only real feeling that remained was a lump in his back pocket. He reached around himself and felt the, surprisingly unsoaked, pages of a familiar feeling book. Well, he knew where that was at least.

Around him was nothing but blue ocean, and above him was a beautiful blue sky with maybe two puffy cumulus clouds making their way ever so slowly across the sky. Amazed, he looked down at just past the horizon and relief flooded his systems at once.

Sapnap finally returned to the air, once again gasping and coughing, but this time with the accompaniment of what seemed to be a passed out Alex that he was holding over his shoulder. Karl frowned and kicked himself closer to the two, putting his hands on Quackity's legs as a way to ease some of the weight that must have been practically anchoring Sapnap towards the bottom of the sea. Not that Quackity was particularly big, just.... heavy.

"Sapnap," Karl began, raising his voice to be heard over the rushing waves in the ocean.

"Not now, Karl!" Sapnap cut him off, almost pushing away his fiance in his anger. "We need to find a place to put Alex down, he's barely breathing."

Karl shook his head. "That's what I'm trying to say!" He pointed at the horizon. "There's land over there! There's a beach!"

Sapnap followed Karl's finger with his gaze and pursed his lips with a look of determination. He tightened his grip on the unconscious man and began furiously kicking his legs in the direction of the sand. Karl didn't take long to follow.

\--

Sapnap finally placed Quackity down on the sand with a huff, then turned onto his back and collapsed beside him. He was panting and wheezing, sweating despite being covered in water, and he wanted to go home. Karl climbed up the shore and crawled over to Alex, then laid his head on the younger man's chest with a look of worry. He straightened back up and placed the heel of his palm on Alex's chest. Sapnap watched as Karl gave him cpr, feeling nothing but tired and worried.

After what seemed like way too long in Sapnap's opinion, Karl laid his head on Alex's chest and waited a beat before melting into relief against his skin. Sapnap himself melted a little to the tune of Alex's chest slowly rising and falling in the rhythm of a beating heart.

He was silent for a good long while, reveling in the sun beating down on his salty skin and gradually drying up his damp hair. Karl didn't break the silence to so much as move a muscle and instead chose to just glue himself to Alex's chest and act like a breast feeding baby attached to the unconscious man. Sapnap glanced over at them.

"How did Alex get that shirt on?" he asked as he noticed the state of Quackity's outfit. What had once been a cozy looking set of winter pajamas under a thick winter coat and boots had turned instead to a thin pair of dark shorts half covered by the flowery blue Hawaiian button-up shirt that had slipped off of his chest shoulders. Not that he was complaining too much, as it looked amazing on Quackity, but it just simply hadn't been there before.

Karl lifted his head, his light brown curls flopping to flick salt water into his eyes, and looked down at the chest he'd been practically sleeping on. Sure enough, it was completely barren as opposed to being layered with at least slightly warm clothing. Not knowing what to say, Karl looked back at Sapnap and gave him a once over. "How did you get _that_ on?"

Sapnap sat up and looked down at his own outfit and nearly fell out of his (nonexistent) chair. He hadn't noticed before, mainly due to his focus previously being on getting Alex to safety and not dying in the middle of the ocean with his fiances, but his own outfit had been completely changed as well. As opposed to his thick coat and world famous flame t-shirt he usually had on when he was outside, he was now wearing a sheer white bathing suit cover over his bare torso and a black set of bathing shorts to cover his bare junk. He almost would say he felt exposed, but he supposed it was appropriate at least for their current setting.

Karl was inspecting his own clothes with a look of fascination as well. He himself was wearing a snazzy purple Hawaiin button up with a pair of teal shorts to match. He looked... well he looked good, if Sapnap were to admit. But that wasn't what had the majority of his attention right now.

"What just happened..?" he asked, quiet at first as if he was unsure of his own question. "How did we... how did we get here? How did we get these clothes?"

Karl looked back at him with a frown. "Your guess is as good as mine. But hey!" He smiled, "at least I love the beach!"

Nick rolled his eyes and almost shouted, "Of course you love the beach. Everyone loves the beach! But this is just unsettling. I mean-!" He looked around in the sand. They were on an island for sure. With a line of trees framing a forest behind them, a mountain overlooking the ocean, and a lighthouse off in the far distance, it was hard to dispute the fact that they were no longer anywhere near the SMP. Sapnap for sure had personally never seen any beach-like structures that might have been there, and he'd lived in the SMP all his life...

"I mean look at this place," he continued. "This is nowhere near home."

"Call us Spider-Man cause we're-"

"If you finish that joke, I will personally twist your nipples off, and not like that one time we experimented, I mean for real painfully pinching your nips off."

Karl stared at him. Sapnap stared back.

The silence between them stretched.

"Far from home."

In a flash, Karl and Sapnap were on their feet and had already dashed at least fifteen feet across the unsteady sand in a brutal pursuit against death itself. The look on Sapnap's face depicted pure unadulterated murderous instinct, whilst Karl's was more like if a puppy was fed a habenero pepper and then asked to run the mile in gym class. Technically Sapnap was way faster than Karl by a long shot, but the boy kept managing to dodge and slip out of his lunging and grabbing attempts. Neither party, however, looked like they planned to give up any time soon.

Before long, they were what felt like half way across the island and were breathing heavily, sweat rolling off their barely clothed bodies and painting the sand beneath them a dark beige. By that point, they were already both smiling and laughing, the playful banter between them bouncing off of their tongues like a racket ball as the chase continued. Karl would fake right and break left, and Sapnap would break his ankles and fall to the sand in defeat only to rebound back up and lunge at him again. This continued.

And continued.

And continued.

Until both parties had effectively collapsed on top of one another (somehow) and were so out of breath that they had to beg the universe for more air the second that their lungs breathed out even a millimetre of oxygen (well, carbon dioxide, but same difference). Their forms were still shaking with unending laughter about some joke they may have made at least a few seconds ago, and even their limbs were twitching ever so slightly with the prospect of maybe getting up and running again. They were exhausted, and rightfully so.

Sapnap stared into the eye of the universe above him and found that despite their predicament, what with not knowing how he had even gotten there and all, he actually felt quite at ease. He felt warm, safe, and happy. Which was more than he'd felt in what felt like the past decade. He was covered in the equally warm body of one of his fiances while the other took a well needed nap not too far off from them. He was in the sun, he was on a beach, he was playing, and he was happy.

But then he remembered how he got there, and suddenly he wasn't.

"Karl, this is insane," he spoke up, his voice still rough and quiet from the chase he'd given Karl a few seconds ago. "We shouldn't even be here. How are we going to get home? Where even _is_ here??"

"You keep asking me these questions like I know the answer but I'm as lost as you, dog." Karl took a deep breath, then pushed himself to sit up with a grunt. He looked down at his fiance from where he sat on his lap. "Honestly I'll be glad if we ever even see civilization again. But hey, on the bright side! If we _are_ stuck here, wherever _here_ is, it's just you, me, and Quackity on an island. And that's all we need for a good time, am I right?"

Sapnap could feel his cheeks catch fire.

He pushed Karl off of him and sat up again. "This is serious, Karl Jacobs. We could be stuck here forever."

"Really? It doesn't seem that serious to me."

Sapnap looked back at him with confusion painted over his features. Karl was giving him this sweet, unbothered smile that was making something inside him flutter with an air of unpredictability and excitement. He _did_ love the beach. And chasing Karl hadn't been _terrible_. But that didn't erase their problems, did it? They were still somewhere they knew not where and got there they knew not how. Quackity still had almost drowned and they hadn't seen another living soul since they arrived. And yet Karl was still so positive about it. But maybe that's just the way Karl is, he realized.

Then, as if God himself thought that pranking Sapnap was the absolute funniest shit in the whole god damn universe, he and Karl heard a sound, a familiar sound, coming from just over a sand dune to their left. He and Karl turned, caught completely off guard by the music of.. laughter. And voices...

They glanced at one another, then back to the dune, and suddenly they were off.

"Get it, get it, get it Dream!"

"I'm TRYING! You YELLING AT ME isn't gonna help, George!"

"Oof, looks like that's another point for me and Bad. Looks like it's match point time!"

"Ranboo help, I'm stuck in the net!"

Karl and Sapnap had just climbed up the hill when the group had burst into laughter over Bad's peril. Sure enough, there they were.

Dream, George, Badboyhalo, and Ranboo were all there, on a beach volleyball court, dressed in the same kind of beach attire that they themselves were wearing. Bad had gotten himself entangled in the net as he presumably tried to retrieve the ball from under it after he and Ranboo had won a point over Dream and George. They all looked so carefree and happy and not at each others' throats and... young..

Sapnap glanced at Karl one more time as a look of horror crossed over his face. Those _weren't_ his friends. At least, not as he knew them. It looked like Karl had noticed as well, as he was wearing his own look of terror.

After helping Bad from his precarious position as a fly trapped in a spider's web, Ranboo glanced over at the dune and his face lit up with recognition. He raised a hand in the air, flapping it back and forth in a childish greeting towards the pair. "Hey guys! What took you so long? Where's Quackity?"

Sapnap and Karl both startled and turned back to the group. They all had taken time from laughing at Bad to look over and give them their friendliest smiles and greetings, matching Ranboo's carefree energy. Something about the way the group held themselves made Sapnap want to run down the hill and jump into their open arms, but he held himself back. It just wasn't... wasn't right. Wasn't real.

However, as he was thinking that, he noticed Karl begin climbing down the dune and towards the group, much to his own dismay. He practically leaped from his position and grabbed Karl's arm, stopping him in place.

"What are you doing?? We don't know if this is a trap."

"Trap?" Karl raised an eyebrow. "Nick, they're our friends. Why would they trap us?"

"What if they're not our friends? What if they're actually shapeshifting demons that transported us here to eat us and kill us!"

Karl blinked. "Are they gonna eat us first and _then_ kill us? Vore?" He giggled. Sapanap almost smacked a red mark into his arm. "Ow.."

"Karl this is serious. We don't know where we are and we don't know what they want. This could be dangerous."

The boy paused, searching his fiances eyes for a good moment. His face softened and he dropped his arm from the other man's faltering grip. He offered Sapnap a gentle smile.

"Sap, we're already here. We already don't know what to do. We're already on a beach! If you want to sit around and feel terrible about all that stuff, I'm not gonna stop you. And maybe you're right, maybe they will vore me and kill me. But I won't know if I don't try! Besides," he took several steps backwards, his smile widening as he almost bounced on his heels with excitement, "it looks like it could be fun!" He fully turned and sprinted off towards the awaiting group, and Sapnap knew he'd lost him. He watched Karl run up to them and begin bantering with them lightly, as if there was nothing wrong with the world at all.

He turned back to where he knew Quackity was resting and climbed over the hill to peek. Sure enough, the man was still laying there, eyes closed and body relaxed. He didn't _seem_ like he was in any danger... But still.... but still! He couldn't just... surely he couldn't... he turned back to Karl.

Surely.. maybe just for a little while...

They were on a beach after all.

\--

Quackity's eyes fluttered open and he immediately winced and covered his face with a hand. It was so bright in... wherever he was... Why was the sun so bright? Why was the floor so grainy? Why did his throat feel like he'd just tried to inhale the hottest gas on earth? Why was his cHEST NAKED?!

He sat up in an instant and looked down at himself. Sure enough, he was wearing an unbuttoned shirt and a short pair of shorts (funnily enough). It wasn't too different from his usual wear, if he was being honest. But it was the middle of winter! Surely he'd be freezing to death right now?

But... he wasn't. It was actually quite hot. He slowly raised his head and looked around.

Well... this was new...

...

After looking around the island for what felt like at least half an hour to him, he found that both Sapnap and Karl were nowhere in sight, but he did find a note on a table not too far from the place he woke up that said the following:

Dear Quackmiesta,  
Went out wit da gang to go on a pirate adventure. Me and Sappy nappy are okay and will return soon. Try not to die.  
Also, learn to swim next time, idiot.  
Love you lots, stay safe.  
-Karl Jacobs

Quackity grit his teeth almost down to a point as he read it. Karl infuriated him sometimes. He loved the man, but he'd left Alex with absolutely no explanation for anything at all and had instead decided that going on a "pirate adventure" was more important than making sure his fiance was waking up okay and not being eaten by vultures or something.

But then he saw the cute cake that they had left for him on the table with a note that said "In case you get hungry. Please try to have fun on the beach but stay safe, we love you <3" and all of a sudden his anger was melting away like a snowball in the middle of the nether. Fighting against a smile, Quackity ate a slice.

Well, he was in the middle of a beach, no one around, and the sun was still high in the sky. ... Might as well jerk off.

He laughed at his own joke.

Instead, he decided to explore the island.

There was actually quite a bit to it, especially the forest bits. The trees were full of mangoes and coconuts and there were plenty of freshwater streams running through it that he was able to get a substantial drink of water. He enjoyed it quite a bit, actually. It was somehow ice cold as if he was drinking from a water bottle that had been in the fridge for a full 24 hours after having a particularly satisfying work out. To say he hydrated himself was an understatement. His belly gurgled with water as he walked for the next few minutes.

He also found plenty of chests around, though nothing too sustainable. He found some light pieces of armor, holes and slashed torn through them with what he presumed might have been a sword, some carrots and baked potatoes that managed to be kept in mildly edible condition, some tools like a shovel or a flint and steel, which he used to set fire to a few trees just for the fun of it (Karl had said to have fun after all), and even a heavy piece of golden horse armor, which he thought might be humorous to try to wear. He found out quickly that getting stuck in a piece of armor that had far too many holes for his liking was definitely the opposite of humorous. At least no one was around to observe him.

He'd even found a cute little gazebo atop a small mountain at the center of the island. He sat under it for a good long while and looked out at the endless blue sky above him. Sapnap would have called it the eye to the universe. He was poetic like that. Stupidly, in Alex's opinion, but it was cute. And in a way it made sense. Eyes are the windows to the soul, the sky is the window to the universe. How else would humans be able to see the stars? God, Alex would love to see the stars on this island. He was sure they'd cover everything he saw. Right there beside the smiling faces of his fiances.

God, this island was turning him into a mushy freak. He had to leave as soon as possible.

Look around more, he'd found a few books lying around. Most of them were just stupid things that seemed to be about the weird pirate adventure that his boys were apparently going on (who the fuck names their child blockbeard?), but some of them were like tour guides to the island.

Apparently, this place wasn't too far from the SMP. He could probably row back to it within a day if he and the others tried. So all hope wasn't _too_ lost. However, something about the books he managed to find were off to him. They felt too... old. Like yeah, they were _old,_ but something about the way the person who had written them was talking seemed off to him. Like they weren't modern. Even though the books _looked_ modern. As if they were written maybe even a few days ago. But that didn't make sense, did it? Who was around this island a few days ago when no one on the SMP even knew it existed?

Head hurting, Quackity closed the pages and returned the book to its spot in the abandoned tent. Something was up, but he couldn't figure out what.

Other than the discontinuities, Quackity felt at ease. He was taking his time exploring an all new world and was having the time of his life. He even fought off a few monsters with a shovel, which he personally thought was really cool. He climbed a tree and ate a mango, rode a hog, built a little hut out of dirt and wood, and even had some time to sit at the edge of the beach and wiggle his toes around in the gentle waves that threatened to tickle his ankles. He felt peaceful on the island, something he hadn't felt in a long while. There was no war here, no manipulation, no fighting, no struggle, no winter, no broken relationships, and no pain. Just him, the sun, the sea, and the distance as far as his legs would take him. Quackity was... happy.

And that was how they group had found him, laying back on a makeshift lounge chair, his eyes closed and his feet grazing the low tide. He was almost drifting off to the sight of the sunset when he heard the bustling sounds of a group of actual humans heading out of the forest and in his direction. His eyes opened and he looked back at them.

"There you guys are, what took you so long?"

Karl's face lit up immediately and Sapnap ran over to him. "Quackity!" Karl called with a wide smile.

Sapnap had descended upon him in seconds and was lifting his arm to poke at his ribs with a look of worry. "Alex! Are you okay, baby? Were you breathing okay, did you get some rest?"

Quackity giggled at the pokes and forcefully swatted him away. "I'm fine I'm fine! Don't call me that, loser. Look, I woke up just fine and I just explored the island for a while." He shrugged with a smile. "That's it."

"Oh you should've been there," Karl interrupted, joining the crew in criss cross applesauce as he kicked up a cloud of sand in the process. "We went on this whole journey to find a sunken ship and a lost treasure and it was amazing. There was this HUUUGE coral reef that stretched on for, like, miles! It was beautiful, Q. You shouldn't have drowned!"

"Okay, Karl, you can stop now," Quackity complained, his eyes rolling but his smile unending. "You don't have to try to make me jealous, alright? You already left me here to die, I can get the memo just as well from that, okay?"

The rest of the group was joining the fiances, all looking as if they'd been on the best roller coaster of their entire lives. Dream took his place beside Sapnap and George curled up in the sand beside him to lay his head on his lap. Bad spread himself out in the sand in front of them and closed his eyes in a look of peace, and Ranboo just kinda stood there a bit awkwardly. He held up the item he had in his hands.

"I got a cool sword."

"That's nice, Ranboo," Quackity laughed.

The group got to talking with one another, laughing and joking and playing around as the sun finally set over the horizon far beyond them. Quackity couldn't help how hard he was laughing or how aggressive he was being. He felt at ease. He felt... well he felt like himself. Back when his life wasn't all just war and running and hiding and failing. Back when he could just hang with his friends and do something funny and make everyone around him laugh. And that's what he did! And that's how he felt. And that's how he was.

It felt like a whole lifetime had flashed before his eyes before the group had finally grown quiet. Each member was either curled up on a towel in the sand and dozing softly or was leaning against someone and whispering sweet nothings into the air. Well, that wasn't fair for Quackity to say... in reality, it was only Dream and George who were whispering to one another. Everyone else was just laying down and chillaxing.

Karl's head was resting against his chest and his own head was resting against Sapnap's shoulder. They were leaning back against a dune, hands intertwined over their bodies, and smiles plastered across their faces. He couldn't think of a better way to be spending the early night.

"Well, today was amazing," Sapnap commented, resting his head atop Quackity's to Alex's disapproval.

"See," Karl spoke up, his voice far and soft with the rising tide of his sleepiness, "told you today would be fun. And you said it'd be terrible."

Alex could practically feel Sapnap roll his eyes. "Yeah, okay. You were right, it wasn't terrible. But it still wasn't.. normal. We still don't know how to get home, and we still don't know how we even got here."

"Actually," Alex was interrupting, "apparently this place isn't that far from the SMP. We could just craft a boat and head out tomorrow morning. Should make it back before nightfall."

Karl lit up. "See! And nothing was ever wrong again!"

"Okay okay! You got me, sheesh. Nothing was ever wrong." Sapnap's voice bubbled as he gave a curt giggle in response, and Quackity could feel his heart dissipate five times harder.

Quackity closed his eyes and nuzzled into the younger man's neck. To say he never wanted to leave that moment was an understatement.

But then.. reality came crashing back on him.

He was sighing before he even realized it.

"What's wrong, Big Q?" Sapnap asked, a hint of worry tinting his voice.

Quackity almost didn't answer, but figured it would be better than him just ignoring his own fiance. He sucked in a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm himself back down.

"I want every day to be like this," he admitted, feeling more embarrassed every second that passed after he said it. "I want my whole life to be like this. Today was _fun_. I don't want that to stop. But when we go back home.. it will." He paused, but the others didn't answer. And he knew they were thinking the same thing. "No one here would want to be together like this again. This won't ever happen again. This won't ever be... fun.. again.. And it makes me sad, I guess."

Karl tightened his grip on Quackity's shirt and collapsed back into him. "Yeah. That's sad. But!" He sat up and smiled into his fiance's eyes, "we'll always have the memory of this day forever. And that's more than I could ever ask for, remembering the amazing day I had with you two. I wouldn't ever have it any other way."

And suddenly, Quackity was falling in love all over again. And it burned. And it felt amazing.

"God, Karl. Way to get poetic," Sapnap commented with a chuckle, but Alex could hear it in his voice. He had felt it too. And god, Alex loved them. So much.

Karl trilled out his little giggle and practically mashed his face back into Alex's chest. Quackity let him, choosing to instead just close his eyes and relax for once. He was in that moment, and he was happy.

And that was all that mattered.

...

Quackity woke up with a pounding headache, a bright white light burning itself into his retinas. He no longer felt the comfortingly soft feeling of sand against his back, only the cold abrasiveness of white tile and a flat floor. His head swimming, he sat up and fought to open his eyes.

"Where... where are we?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments! They literally make me so happy, you have no idea. Please keep commenting! I read them all!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter, peaceeee.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments are highly appreciated, more than kudos actually. Please do take the time to tell me what you think and maybe even where this story will go! Again, from this point on, all of this will be alternate universe/headcanon territory, so make of that what you will. Still though! It will be just as interesting.
> 
> Lemme know if you want more and how fast! Thanks for reading!


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